Sorry for taking so long, but I'm finally deciding to address your points after the headache I got with Ramshutu. Here it goes:
Treatment =/= cure.
What's the difference?
Would people who try to treat their STDs be exempt from the tax?
Only those that succeed in curing/treating(I don't know the difference) their STDs get exempt from the tax. An exception applies to HIV because you can't get treated of HIV yet. Anyone with HIV would face something worse; castration, being necessary to prevent them from wanting to have sex.
What of the extreme environments in which people live? Florida, Arizona, Texas, and other states tend to have blisteringly hot temperatures and turbulent weather conditions.
They could tent in the shade. It's cooler there. Where this spot is is up to them to figure out.
Also, some municipalities banned sleeping in/camping in public. Additionally, so-called "anti-vagrancy" laws punish people who camp in public at an astonishing rate. Despite the Justice Department taking the official position that we should not criminalize homelessness through these ordinances, 10,000 citations were doled out in 2015
Do you know why sleeping on the street is punishable?
San Fransisco, because it offers homeless shelters to people, can still ban camping in public.
As long as the shelters don't cost any additional money, I'm fine with them using a shelter. I don't want the government paying welfare payments to people who don't contribute as much to society as the rich do. Any poor person that thinks the businessman has it easy should honestly try being a business man. Any struggles the poor person puts up with in an effort to make a business, rich people also tend to endure.
The income earned by people on minimum wage will inevitably differ from what is shown in that link. It assumes that people on the minimum wage work 12 hours a day, or 84 hours per week.
That's if the poor person chooses the hardest option. There are easier options that they can do, like what I call, "Weekend break option 2" where only 243 days are worked per year, or about 5 days a week with a 3 week vacation, like everyone else. Under this model, they still get over $6000 a year once all other significant expenses are paid(food, insurance, taxes). This money can be used for investment.
The average amount of hours worked per week is about 44-47 hours (5)
This is because if companies want to make a worker work more then they have to pay overtime.(
https://www.oshaeducationcenter.com/articles/employee-overtime/). Cutting this regulation and bumping the overtime threshold to 60 hours a week (12 hours on, 12 hours off) helps enable poor people to get ahead in American society as the spreadsheet confirms.
So, teenagers who get pregnant would pay the tax as well?
They or their parents would.
Also, a ring and a photo can be faked. A marriage certificate is easy to lose, so it is possible for a lot of people to show up with no documentation of a marriage.
It's hard to fake a ring or photo on the spot. A ring is very expensive, and most people who are in the situation have no idea of the tax, so the odds of them buying a ring just to show that that they are, "married" is very low, most people don't have that wit on them, even if the ring is cheaper. I could make the unintended pregnancy tax $500 instead so people aren't likely to spend $1000 to save $500.
The cost of having a birth is already outrageous. The delivery, epidural, and caring for the newborn child could cost over $15,000 if done at a hospital (2).
Insurance can cover these costs and the sheet shows how poor people can afford health insurance.
I am not suggesting that Budweiser is going to go bankrupt, but we probably will face budget crunches in the future if alcohol is one of the main drivers of the budget.
Good point. Currently, the alcohol tax is pretty low, around 3 cents per beer I think, although I'm not sure. Doubling this small tax won't be very noticeable.
People don't like paying more money for things, so they will naturally buy from the multitude of cars with better fuel economies.
Some people would barely notice the 30 cent tax price; currently gas is taxed at around 20 cents per gallon. A 10 cent increase won't scare away too many drivers.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030, electric automobile purchases would rise to 125 million, which is much more then the current electric fleet today which only totals 3 million
That's in 2030, 10 years from now. In the meantime, gas can be taxed. When it's 2030, there would be about 320 million cars on the road, so there would still be a majority of cars still using gasoline. Gas tax can increase gradually as the percentage of gas users goes down so it doesn't scare away too many people from using gas.
I have little sympathy for rapists, but they still have their 8th amendment rights which prevents the state from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on them.
For the crime that they did to the rape victim, the punishment of temporary slavery is not too cruel. It also isn't unusual, since the 13th amendment allows slavery if punished for a crime.
What would this slave work entail?
I would say construction work managed by construction workers and prison guards seems like something that can be done. It's ultimately up to the prisons to decide what work they need for their community.
